Underground Movement - Video and poem about a Liverpool busker

Updated on November 16, 2012

Underground Movement - the video backstory

I see this guy every day when I am going to work in the morning. He busks in a subway that connects the underground to the mainline station at Liverpool Lime Street. Every day he is there without fail with his battered guitar and wonky mouth organ. He plays the same tune every day, with small variations. He wears the same clothes all year, he has a drink of water in a used milk bottle and his guitar case is almost worn through. I have only ever seen two people give him money.

I first came across this guy when I had an office in Liverpool town centre. He played in an alley two floors below my office window. It was the same riff over and over again like a loop. He used to drive me crazy and there were times when I thought of tipping a bucket of water over him. Then he moved and I never thought about it again.

Two years later I started a new job where I had to catch the train every day. Suddenly he's there again in the subway between the stations. I thought this guy is going to haunt me. At first I was annoyed that he was there at the start of my day playing his same old riff over and over. But then I started to look at it from a writer's point of view. What was this guys story? Musically he had a very limited repertoire but he was original. Perhaps he's developing a concept album in a new prog busk rock genre. He could be a visionary!

Or he could be just a guy stuck in the same groove musically and in life - you decide.

Cell phone documentaries - Nokia Lumia 610

I shot 'Underground Movement' with my mobile phone - Nokia Lumia 610. It's vga so the visual quality is poor by HD standards. But I think it lends an edgy, voyeuristic feel to the production.

There was little or no scripting. I simple shot as I walked along. Then edited on iMovie 11.

The words were written as a poem on the train to work while thinking about the busker.

If you want to make a documentary movie with your mobile phone then you don't need the most expensive smart phone. The Nokia 610 is very much an entry level smart phone. There are much better quality phone cameras available for £100 or less. But I like the fact that you only need three key presses to be filming. If you see something that catches your eye then you can capure it and save the moment. Anyone can do it.

Liverpool Lime Street Station

The busker plays in the subway between Merseyrail Lime Street underground station and the main line railway station every day between about 7am to 9am

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